Just as challenger banks have appeared in the B2C space, so to have B2B startup banks aimed at small businesses, among them startups like Qonto (Fr), Tide (UK), Penta (GER) and CountingUp (UK). Today another such firm, Finom, has closed a €6.5m ($7M) seed funding round led by Target Global, with participation from General Catalyst. […]

During this pandemic, many organizations are offering free or drastically cheaper courses to help people skill-up for when we eventually get out of lock-down. There are numerous outlets if you want to learn to code from, for instance, Freecodecamp or the Free Fridays scheme from General Assembly. And for gamers, Gamedev.tv has taken 80% off […]

It was only the other week that Andreesen Horowitz announced their second blockchain-focused fund of $515 million. In the announcement, they said: “We are still early in this Web 3 build-out. High-performance programmable blockchains will make decentralized network development much more accessible. After years of R&D, we are excited that a number of next-gen programmable […]

At the start of the year, it looked like Europe would be in for a “Summer E-Scooters / E-Bike War,” as both regional startups and U.S.-backed unicorns vied for the pockets of city commuters. Consolidation came when German startup Circ was taken over by U.S. competitor Bird at the start of the year. Still on […]

The Europas Awards — which have been recognising the hottest European tech startups in since 2009 — are now open for the public voting stage, prior to the formal judging process. The entries have been sorted and sifted by journalists to compile an editorially-driven ‘long list’ of some of Europe’s most exciting startups and investors. […]

VC fund Runa Capital was launched with $135 million in 2010, and is perhaps best known for its investment into NGINX, which powers many web sites today. In more recent years it has participated or led investments into startups such as Zipdrug ($10.8 million); Rollbar this year ($11 million); and Monedo (for €20 million). HQ’d […]

Cuckoo Internet is a new U.K. startup that aims to disrupt the U.K. broadband market. It has now raised £470,000 in seed funding, which includes funding from work.fund, a new Silicon Valley fund operator fund led by Bart Macdonald (Sapling founder). Other investors include Lorin van Nuland (early investor in Betterment), Edward Campbell-Harris (Bulb early […]

“Is Greta Thunberg a hypocrite?” Google that phrase and you will get thousands of results. It just goes to show that, to a large extent, the “Q&A” model is broken on the internet. Where once Yahoo Answers and Quora were considered the bright young things of Web 2.0’s “Read/Write Web,” today there is only the […]

After months of rumors, Verizon finally sold off Tumblr for a reported $3 million — a fraction of what Yahoo paid for the once mighty blogging service back in 2013. The media conglomerate (which also owns TechCrunch) was clearly never quite sure what to do with the property after gobbling it up as part of […]

In this episode of Flux I talk with LaTurbo Avedon, an online avatar who has been active as an artist and curator since 2008.

Revolution Ventures raises another $215 million to invest outside of the hotbeds.

Late last night the Financial Times reported that HuffPost, arguably one of the crown jewels of Verizon Media Group’s remaining network of media properties (which includes TechCrunch), is up for sale. Verizon has been shedding media properties in a retreat from the strategy that it had begun to execute with the acquisition of AOL for […]

The Midwest may not be known as the fashion capital of the world (or even the U.S.), but its place in the consumer retail firmament is secure through L Brands and its Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works subsidiaries. Now, venture investors are investing $17.3 million to establish another tent-pole clothing brand in the […]

Those looking outside of Silicon Valley as a potential hub for their startup might want to take a gander at Utah, at least that’s the kind of trend the new Silicon Slopes Venture Fund hopes to create. The newly formed fund, put together by Qualtrics co-founder Ryan Smith, Omniture and Domo founder Josh James and […]

The new Extra Crunch Live series is taking flight this week. Today we’re talking to Cowboy Ventures’ Aileen Lee and Ted Wang. This Thursday we’re keeping the parade of well-known investors coming, when Charles Hudson will join Natasha Mascarenhas and I for a deep-dive into all things pre-seed and seed. Extra Crunch Live Episode 2: […]

The $525m transaction is the latest to be derailed amid the coronavirus pandemic

The $55tn industry has emerged scared and shrunken but largely intact

Emerging economies that have long tested investors’ patience say they need fresh help

Debate about flight scandal has detracted attention from strategic changes and oversight at world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund

Calastone reports record inflows throughout April after heavy redemptions in March

Sale of German broadband provider rescues buyout firm’s performance

Slick stock-trading apps skip over the risks for inexperienced investors

Investors who saw rental housing as a safe bet before the pandemic are bracing for delinquencies

FSCS could compensate some investors in collapsed mini-bond issuer London Capital Finance

Two-thirds of companies with lowly ratings from Moody’s were bought by PE groups

Share price surges after news breaks of deal with Games Workshop

Pardoning cronies is offensive but precedented. Using DoJ to go after enemies is Nixonian

Will environmental and social initiatives survive Covid-19? Our specialists answered your questions

Investors braced for years of lower payouts by some of the most reliable dividend-paying stocks

Few investors went into this crisis with a portfolio they were entirely happy with

Countries in region issue debt at close to fastest rate in a decade due to pandemic

Ruffer precious metal and Baillie Gifford tech vehicles shine during market turbulence

German conglomerate hopes to offload lossmaking division to focus on steel

French group braced for revenue losses this quarter despite reopening most of its China factories

World’s largest auto group enjoys earnings boost and increases dividend

Herbert Diess wants to sell 26m emission-free vehicles in 9 years, overtaking rivals including Californian electric pioneer

Blume says industry faces supply constraints because of production ‘bottleneck’

US carmaker raises spending on EV and autonomous vehicles to $20bn by 2025

Jingye to keep close contact with Paris as it completes takeover and saves 3,200 jobs

Group faces large fines if it fails to sell enough battery-powered vehicles in 2020

German supplier scraps outlook and warns smaller contractors could go out of business

Japanese conglomerate expects rebound in construction industry as cities end lockdowns

Ministers’ challenge to manufacturers sets basic specifications that are not suitable to task, say experts 

FTSE 100 plumbing supplier runs into opposition from shareholders over switch to US

Idan Ofer’s Kenon offloads shares to majority owner Baoneng in $237m deal

Race by machine tool makers to boost mask output underlines importance to economy

What if it was easier to eat salad than junk food? Most diet routines take a ton of time, whether you’re cooking from scratch, making a meal kit or seeking a nutritious restaurant. But on-demand prepared food delivery companies like Sprig that tried to eliminate that work have gone bankrupt from poor unit economics. Thistle […]

Tesla appears to be ramping up installations of its solar tile roofs in the San Francisco Bay area and will eventually roll out to Europe and China, according to CEO Elon Musk, who, in a series of tweets, provided the first substantial update since the company launched the third iteration of its product in October. […]

Tesla’s Model 3 is among the top 10 choices for car buyers in 2020, according to Consumer Reports. The nonprofit organization released its “Top Picks” of the year on Thursday, and it included Tesla’s most affordable vehicle alongside cars from automakers including Toyota, Subaru, Honda, Kia and Lexus. The Model 3 was chosen as one […]

Electriphi, a provider of charging management and fleet monitoring software for electric vehicles, has joined the scrum of startups looking to provide services to the growing number of electric vehicle fleets in the U.S. The San Francisco-based company has just raised $3.5 million in seed funding from investors, including Wireframe Ventures, the Urban Innovation Fund […]